Second Chances
by 23a
Summary: The girl's life is full of nothing but misery. She has learned to walk the earth like a ghost. But one day she finds a strange object that reveals the secrets of her mysterious past and might lead her to the father she's never known - and who's never known she existed.
1. Prologue: Ghost of a Life Past

There was nothing. Nothing left for her. Her birth mother had given her up for adoption and didn't want her. Her adopted parents were dead, as were all her siblings. Her friends had cast her out like a freak. Like the freak she was. She was nothing more than a ghost, walking the earth where she didn't belong. She wasn't sure why she bothered to even live. At least not until she found it. She was walking down a street in Los Angeles, and she found a strange object lying on the ground. She picked it up. It was a wristwatch, and it looked like it had been specially made. She turned it over and looked at the logo on the back. It was a strange logo. She could just make out the words: The Dharma Initiative.


	2. Answers

She walked and walked until she found the house in which she used to live. She went to the computer and looked up the Dharma Initiative. The only result she found was a website that she couldn't access without a password. But on images, she saw a bunch of pictures labeled with years - new recruits. She looked at all of them until she got to the year 1977. Three of those people looked familiar. And then she knew why. They had all been members of the Oceanic Six. But all of them had died, except for one. And then she knew what she had to do. She had to find Kate Austen. She had to get answers from her. She didn't know why she needed to know so badly, but she knew she did. Nothing had ever felt so right.

**...**

She found the address - 42 Panorama Crest. She knocked on the door. A young boy answered - about 8 years old.

"Hello", said the boy "Who are you?"

"My name is Jessica. I'm looking for Kate Austen."

The boy started going upstairs.

"What is it, Aaron?", Jessica heard someone say.

"Some girl wants to see you."

She came walking down. It was her. It was Kate.

"Hello?", she said.

"Hi. I'm Jessica. I need to know any information you have on the Dharma Initiative."


	3. Tried to Forget

Kate felt like looking up at the stars and screaming "Seriously?!" But she didn't. She was mad. No, she was furious. She'd spent her five years back in the real world trying to forget. Trying to forget the misery, the pain, the horrible things that happened on that island. She'd almost succeeded, too. Then this girl showed up with her annoying questions. Once they'd gotten back from the island, Kate and Claire had agreed to share custody of Aaron. Claire was his birth mother, but Kate had raised him for three years of his life. Aaron had been fine with that arrangement too. Now Aaron was 8, and their lives had been going on for 5 years. Shortly after returning from the island, Kate had found out she was pregnant. She'd had a girl, and she'd named her Mary. The girl was 4 now, and she loved Aaron very much. Their lives had gone back to normal - sort of. And then this girl - Jessica - showed up and in one second managed to remind Kate of all the things she'd tried to forget. Still, she figured she might as well answer the girl's question. But first, she had one of her own.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I'm not sure. But nothing in my life has ever felt so right."

Kate remembered Jack saying that about detonating that stupid bomb; look how that had worked out for everybody. But Kate figured she'd just answer and get on with her life.

"Well, the Dharma Initiative was on this weird mysterious island in the '70s and '80s, and at some point the island's indigenous people, the Hostiles, killed them all and took over the houses where they lived. Two of them joined the Hostiles: Ethan (Don't know his last name) and Benjamin Linus."

At the name Benjamin Linus, the girl seemed to freeze for a second.

"And... what happened to them?"

"Ethan's dead, and Ben's still on that island somewhere." Kate remembered that freak; all the horrible things he'd done. He'd tried to take Aaron.

"I... I need you to tell me how to get to that island."

"Why on earth would you want to go back there?"

"I need to find Benjamin Linus."

"Why?"

"Because he's my father."

**...**

Her father. That evil, manipulative freak was this girl's father. Kate suddenly felt that Jessica was not a force to be tampered with. But... no way was she going back to that island. She had only one piece of advice for Jessica.

"Eloise Hawking knows how to get to the island. She helped me return."

"Return?"

"Yeah."

"One more thing."

"What?"

"How did you look the same in the Dharma Initiative picture as you did in the pictures after the Oceanic Six were rescued?"

"Time travel."

"Oh."

"You don't seem surprised", Kate noted.

"Neither would you if you'd seen the things I have."

"Well, good luck with the island."

"Yeah. Thanks, Kate."

"You're welcome, Jessica."

And with that, Kate turned around and went back to playing with Aaron, already pushing the incident with Jessica out of her mind.


	4. My Father

How had she forgotten? When Jessica was little, maybe 5 or 6, she'd asked her adoptive mother about her birth parents. The woman hadn't known much, but she'd given the names: Benjamin Linus and Annie Something-or-other (That was literally what she had said). Only hearing Kate say it did Jessica remember. And now she had to find him. She located Eloise Hawking, and she entered the church. An old woman stood at the far end.

"Are you - are you Eloise Hawking?"

She turned around. "I am. Who are you?"

"My name is Jessica Terrence. I need to get to the island."

"How do you know about the island, and why do you want to go there?"

"I know because Kate told me, and I want to go because my father is there."

"Your father? And who might that be?"

"His name is Benjamin Linus."

"Benjamin has a daughter? He never mentioned you."

"Well, I don't believe he knows I exist."

"Well... follow me."

Jessica followed Eloise downstairs, to where there was a room with a map on the floor.

"What is this?"

"The Lamppost. It's a Dharma station. It's how they found the island. I control it now."

Eloise looked some stuff up, then turned to Jessica.

"I honestly don't know if you're supposed to be there, so this may not work, but try taking Australian Airlines flight 423 to Sydney."

"LA to Sydney? Isn't that the opposite of -"

"Yes, dear, that's the point."

"Oh. Well, thank you."

She turned to leave.

"Oh, one more thing, Jessica."

"Yes?"

"Make sure there's nobody else on that plane."

"How?"

"I don't know, but you'd better figure it out."

**...**

She knocked on the door, slightly nervous. Kate answered.

"Jessica? What now?"

"I need money."

"Money?"

"Eloise told me a flight that might get me there, but she said I had to make sure there was nobody else on that plane. And the only way to do that is to buy every ticket."

Kate didn't even hesitate; she had plenty of money and didn't want to sentence anyone else to the fate of crashing on that island. She went to her computer, found the flight, thinking _423? Seriously?, _and bought all the seats in the name of Jessica Terrence.

"Good luck, Jessica."

"Thank you, Kate."

And with that, a 14-year-old girl set out to fly by herself to a mysterious island in the hopes of finding the father who didn't even know she existed. It was wild and risky, but Jessica didn't care. There was a single thought motivating her to do it, no matter how crazy it was: _My father. _


	5. Airplane

Jessica hadn't been in an airplane in years. Not since the day her adoptive mother had died and she'd flown across the country to find the town she was born in and find her birth mother. When they'd turned her down, saying it was a closed adoption, she'd flown back and hadn't flown since. It was strange, being on the airplane alone. Because it was just her, they had only one flight attendant, and the pilot and copilot. As few people as possible. About halfway through the trip, the plane started to rumble. The flight attendant told her to fasten her seat belt. She did, and then the plane rumbled again and started to go down. The flight attendant and the copilot freaked and jumped out with parachutes, leaving just Jessica and the pilot. Somehow, the pilot landed the plane. He looked at her.

"You knew this would happen, didn't you?", he asked.

"Yes. That's why I had Kate buy all the tickets."

"Kate? You know Kate?"

"She helped me get here."

"Why did you want to get here?"

"My father is here. Have you, by any chance, been to the island before?"

"Yeah. Twice."

"What's your name?"

"I'm Frank. Frank Lapidus."

**...**

Frank told Jessica that he'd gotten a brief signal and that the flight attendant and copilot had been picked up by a boat and taken home. They were lucky. The boat was just by chance floating by.

Meanwhile, he and Jessica were stranded. But Jessica didn't care.

"Who's your father that you said was on the island?"

"Benjamin Linus."

"That murderer?"

"What? What do you mean, murderer?"

"Kate didn't tell you? He killed Jacob, he killed John Locke, he killed a ton of other people. He let his daughter Alex get killed to save himself."

"He has another daughter?"

"She was adopted. Well, actually, kidnapped."

"I was adopted too. Legally."

"I figured, since he's here. Who's your mother?"

"Annie."

"Well, Ben and Hurley are both here, along with Rose and Bernard and a bunch of Others."

"It sounded almost like 'others' was capitalized."

"It was."

"Oh. Well, I need to find Ben."

"Good luck with that. I'm going to get the plane fixed."

"Please come with me."

He sighed. "Allright."


	6. Surprise!

Trekking through the jungle. Jessica did not enjoy that. But it was worth it. She had to find her father. Along the way, they ran into a black woman picking fruit.

"Hello, Rose."

She whipped around. "Lapidus? You're back on the island?"

"Unfortunately."

"How?"

"She got on a plane and made it crash."

"I didn't make it crash, I just wanted it to."

"Who are you?"

"I'm Jessica. I'm looking for my father."

"Who's your father?"

"Benjamin Linus"

"What?"

"I know, right?", said Lapidus.

"Well, good luck."

"Thanks."

**...**

They kept trekking. Eventually, they found Ben and another member of the Oceanic Six, Hugo Reyes, whom Jessica had thought was dead.

"Frank?"

"Hey, Hurley."

"I'm here too", said Ben.

"I know."

"Who is this?"

"That's Jessica. She says she's your -"

"I'll tell him", I said.

"Tell me what?"

"Well, I, I'm adopted."

"Okay, what does that have to do with me?"

"I'm getting to that! My birth mom gave me up. But, one night I was asking my adopted mother about my birth parents, and she gave me the names. She said my mother's name was Annie."

Ben's face registered pure shock.

"And my father... she said it was you."


	7. A Daughter

"So... you're my daughter?", asked Ben, confused.

"Yeah. I am."

"But how..."

Then he remembered. He remembered how it could be possible. Back in 1997, 5 years after The Purge, the Others were comfortably living in the Dharma Barracks, recruiting new members via sub. He'd managed to track down Annie, his childhood crush. He'd brought her to the island. They'd been together for about 3 months, and then Annie had decided she wanted to leave the island. When Ben tried to stop her, she had gotten angry and left. And apparanetly, taken his daughter with her. And Ben had never known. But now he did.

"I'm leaving", said Lapidus.

"Where are you going?"

"The beach."

"Don't you want to leave the island?"

"Yes, but it's just about impossible."

"Not now that Hurley's running the island."

"Hurley... what?"

"Hurley took over the island."

"Wasn't it sinking?"

"Yes, but Jack saved it. And then died."

"What about Desmond?"

"We sent him home. Just like we can with you."

"Well, great."

Lapidus went over to Hurley and started talking to him. Jessica was looking around the camp.

"Are there any other children here?", she asked.

"Yes. There's Walt, although he's not really a kid anymore. He's 18. And then there are the kids of some of our recruits. There's Ava, and George, and Phillip, and Cassidy."

"Lapidus mentioned something about you... having another daughter?"

"Well, she wasn't my biological daughter. I kidnapped her as a baby. But I still loved her... and then she died. And it was my fault."

"You won't do that with me, will you?"

"No. I won't make the same mistake twice. You're like my second chance, Jessica. My second chance to have a daughter."


End file.
